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BART holds community meetings on two critical issues

I'll admit it, I usually ignore these announcements for community meetings. I'm generally not interested enough in what they're talking about to care. However, this time around they're going to talk about the surplus money and using it for a temporary fare reduction.

When I posted the poll about whether temporary fare decreases are a good idea not too long ago, there was a better response than usual. I don't kid myself that anyone here really cares more than just to bitch about it. However:

If you all have some INTELLIGENT points you'd like to take to one of the meetings, and are too shy/apathetic/fat to go, I would be willing to represent. Post suggestions below before June 10. Keep in mind "Refurbish the trains because they suck" is not a good suggestion. "Refurbishing the trains is a better investment because..." is what I'm looking for. Bonus points for doing math.

Where did this money come from all of a sudden? For years BART hasn't turned a good profit and we've always been hearing about short falls in the budget, we need to raise fares and cut service. Once they do that BART Management says we just squeaked by but we'll be okay.

Now as for what they need to spend it on are things like refurbishing a couple hundred of the cars. It would be a good investment because their new fleet will take a while to get here and these cars will have to last for about another 7-10 years. Some of the refurbished B and C type cars are starting to look a little run down (Mostly the C's, replace the lights at least some of them in the C cars look so dim). If there is anything left over put it aside for a rainy day. Who knows what the future holds.

Also keep in mind that the axing of that fund was illegal; it was money allocated for public transit by a ballot referendum a while back. The supreme court said that the state couldn't use that money for anything but transit but the state told us all to fuck off.

... Where did this money come from all of a sudden? ... You obviously don't know how BART works. Every four years (or three, as it used to be), BART is broke and on the edge of the abyss. Then, a few months after the labor agreements are signed, the higher ups and the Board vote themselves raises. After that, BART is flush with cash again. BART will do fine until 2013, i.e. when the current contracts run out, then they'll be talking about how poor they are.

So does Embarcadero; I almost died when coming up the escalator at Market and Davis I think it is. SO Yuck; I thought Embarcadero was one of the nicer stations.

Why was BART running a friggin five-car train when there was an A's game going on last Friday. Maybe they better spend that extra money on keeping on top of events. BART is only going to lose riders if they can't depend on getting on the train. I rode up to Powell and had a hard time getting on and that was before Oakland 12th Street.

Unbelievable crap service and of course, you have the puker in the corner and no a/c during all of this. Luckily, the A' crowd was pretty tame.

Why the heck are they bothering to hold all of these public meetings if they've already decided what to do with the surplus? The riders want more service, at least restored back to what it used to be, and some cleaner cars. Saving me $.10 on a trip doesn't say "Thank You, Longtime Riders" to me, as I'm stuck on a platform for 20 minutes just to sit on a dirty seat. In November, it's time to say "bye bye" to Keller, Fang, and Ward Allen - as they're trying to buy our votes with this decision. Thank you Gail Murray, Tom Blalock and Tom Radulovich!